A week full of surprises and although some weeks are always better than others, each has its individual charm. Starting with some Spanish treats in the form of Manchego cheese, continuing with sudden changes in the weather catching us out and followed by roads being closed by suicidal men with guns. All capped off with beautiful routes through the mountains that end in lovely little towns where the motivation to finish off a big climb is to imagine live music and local beers on the other side.

We started the day heading towards Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, this time leaving our panniers with our new Spanish friends so we were a little lighter. We spent the morning pedalling from lookout to lookout and enjoying the marvels that nature can conjure up. Once done we went back for our stuff and on the way bumped into Beatriz, Alberto and the kids who let us know that they'd left us a wedge of cheese by our panniers as a present! Amazing! You can't imagine the pleasure it gave us and how much we enjoyed it. Thanks a million guys! Although a little tired from the morning we had to make some progress. But little by little we saw the heavens closing in on us... Until the dreaded moment that it started to rain and we had to put up the tent on the side of the road where, soaked and freezing cold, we struggled to set ourselves up. This ended in Rob and myself in our sleeping bags at 6 o'clock in the afternoon trying to warm ourselves up again, not even having had dinner. The next thing we knew we were waking up the following morning!

And... Surprise! It had been snowing during the night and we awoke to a blanket of the stuff covering the landscape. In all honesty we didn't even consider the possibility that it could snow during summertime round here. But it seems that in the mountains anything is possible! After such a long night's rest we got up and in no time were on the road. This took us towards the next town, which gave the Black Canyon its name, Gunnison, close to the nearby reservoir. But just before we arrived we encountered an unexpected, big, bright sign informing us that the road was closed. This wasn't good news for us as without this road we'd have to go miles out of our way to get to town. So we talked to the workers there and they told us that this was all because of an armed man on the brink of suicide waving his gun around. But, as if this were a day to day thing, it would all be cleared up by the morning. They were really nice and pointed us to where we could camp close by as night was closing in and in the end a local cyclist ended up showing us the way. We finished they day sleeping by some Cottonwood trees just up from the lake.

As we'd been promised, the morning came round and we had no problems getting into town. The day passed by without any setbacks, stopping off in a town park and making the most of internet access to interview Emrys about Aerobility, a charity you can find out more about in last week's audiolog and our Charity page. Afterwards we got going once again and made it to a campsite by a river. We tried to haggle our way out of paying too much but all in vain. Even still we ended the day with some cool beers (which we did manage to get a discount on, probably to stop us being so annoying!) and watched Narcos Mexico in our tent.

To progress we had to confront a huge mountain pass some 3000' on a busy highway with little shoulder, the dreaded Monarch Pass. Thank goodness we talked with the owners of the campsite as we found out that just next door was a road that would also take us into the next valley that was a little lower, through the woods and ,since a train used to go through, the gradient was very gradual. Without thinking it over we changed plans and what a great decision it was as it turned out to be our favourite section so far. It had a connection to nature that is hard to explain, surrounded by bird song and the canopy on the forest that turned the mountains green. And the best of all? No traffic!

After spending a few days climbing and descending this amazing mountain, saying hello to some friendly Long Horned Sheep along the way, we got to a free camping spot where we had nothing to do by rest for the next day. The objective was really to reach the next national park in a few day's time.

Another day of eating up the miles was in order and that's exactly what we did, while the clouds threatened to give us a shower that we didn't want (although probably needed!). Well at lunchtime we did actually have to set up our little tent by the roadside to shelter from a passing storm and had a video call with Rob's friends while we waited it out. And they really recharged our batteries to get on with the rest of the day. We pedalled and pedalled until we arrived at the edge of some national forest land where, once more, the heavens started to look menacing. We got the job of tent putting up done just in time before the storm crackled into life around us.

With a clearer day dawning we hit the next mountain which, to our surprise, was scattered with cycle paths. Although we also had some sections of dangerous road with no hard shoulder. We passed through what we'd been informed by a friendly local was the highest incorporated town in the United States, Alma, and carried on up to the highest point of our trip so far (Hoosier Pass at 11,542'). We really did enjoy the descent after this that took us to the mountain town of Breckenridge, where there was a lot going on! We couldn't resist having some local beers in the town park where there was some live music on show. But soon we had to carry on, a little light headed, and find a spot further down the mountain to camp out.